Over 2,000 liquor shops opened in last 3 yrs, 200 more to come

Soon after AIADMK led by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, came to power for the second consecutive time in 2016, it heralded the implementation of prohibition in the State in phases. Accordingly, around 1,000 liquor shops were closed bringing down the number of liquor shops to 5,667.

However, in a setback to the liquor revenue, the State government was forced to close another 1,500 liquor shops along the highways as per the Apex Court order.

A senior official from the Tasmac told DT Next that in 2017-18, the total number of liquor shops were 2,830 and it was increased to 3,866 outlets in 2018-19. “In 2019-20, the total liquor shops increased further to 5,152,” he said adding as many as 2,295 shops were opened during the last three years.

With Tasmac already planning to open about 100 elite liquor shops across all the cities in the State, he said authorities are in the process of identifying places for opening another 100 ordinary liquor vending outlets.

This is in addition to the 2,000 liquor vending shops opened during the last three years.

“During the last eight months as many as 45 new liquor shops were opened,” he said adding as on January 2020, a total of 5,197 liquor shops are available for the consumers. Justifying the measures to increase the liquor shops, the official said that Tasmac authorities were only replacing the existed one, which was closed due to court’s order. He also noted that owing to the present move of the State government to increase the liquor price and create new outlets, additional revenue to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore will come to the exchequer.

According to the official, at present, the liquor sales in Tamil Nadu stands at Rs 31,157 Crore (Excise Revenue Rs 6,863 Crore and VAT was Rs 24,294 crore). But, the projected revenue for 2020-21 is expected to touch a minimum Rs 34,000 crore. The Tasmac official also pointed out that the daily liquor sales also crossed the Rs 100 crore against the usual Rs 80 crore sale despite the price of liquor being increased. “Weekday sales touched Rs 100 crore while weekend sales crossed Rs 110 crore mark”, he said.